H. L. Gold 1 hr read

Around a rear table at a Broadway restaurant, a horse-race tout and a barred medical columnist gather for some very unusual levity.

H. L. Gold's 1953 story sets its social SF among the touts and gem merchants of a Manhattan eatery, where Clocker Locke's misfortune and Doc Hawkins's release from the alcoholic ward frame a wry, dialogue-rich tale. Sharp, character-driven magazine SF from Galaxy's own founding editor. Read it for witty, worldly golden-age SF steeped in the racetrack argot of old Broadway.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Vidmer